Greetings, friends. I’ve just returned from an amazing time in Cairo, Egypt training an absolutely wonderful group of Sudanese men who are all planning on returning to Sudan and South Sudan to plant churches in their homeland. This was the first Pathways training we have done in the Middle East, and the students eagerly absorbed all the content and seemed to process it very well. I was joined by Pastor John Nett and a good friend of mine from Kingsburg named Paul Nyberg.

We worked with 25 young men who were carefully selected from Sudan and South Sudan to attend the 12-month Tyrannus Bible School. The school is in their fifth season of students. They are doing a fabulous job preparing students to enter unchurched areas with much persecution and challenge. This school is a different sort of venue than other locations globally where we train, so some adjustments needed to be made. Due to the size of the group, since we typically work with no more than 16, for parts of the workshop John took half the group and I took the other half, which seemed to work quite well. At several times when we were not training and I was outside exercising, I was joined by some of the Sudanese brothers who joined in and tried to keep up. I imagine it looked quite interesting with a white guy and several Sudanese jumping around to an “Insanity” exercise video! 

The students demonstrated much hunger for learning the material in how to study and preach the Word, and they developed in their skills as the week went on. The Tyrannus vision is for them to be placed in various locations of Sudan and South Sudan after they finish the training, and there they will plant churches and raise up more church planters. All the young men had preached previously, but none were full-time pastors previously. The property is very nice on the outskirts of Cairo, and we stayed there with all students and some of the faculty. 

The first day after our arrival, we visited a Sudanese church in downtown Cairo and I preached to a packed room of over 300.

It was so much fun worshipping with our Sudanese brothers, who began every session with a few worship songs and prayer. No instruments were used, but voices and clapping and dancing filled the room.

On the last day before departure, we had an unusual opportunity to do some sightseeing. Typically, I am in a large African city that does not have much to offer in that way, but in this case it just so happens that Giza bumps right up against Cairo, so within an hour we had travelled from our school to the pyramids! We saw the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and stood over the Nile River. So I have now stood in the Nile at its beginning in Uganda and over it at its end in Egypt. The pyramids were truly amazing, and a marvel to behold.

It is very likely that I or others from our team will be continuing to work with this school in months to come. I can share a few of the comments from students and faculty to fill out the picture of our time:  

• Pastor Saveny, teacher at Tyrannus: “Last week I prayed that God would help me to better pastor a church and preach the Word. I struggled much with this and did not know what to do. Now you have come and given us the answer. Now I know what I have to do and have hope of preaching well.”
• Matthias: God touched my life about repentance as we studied these lessons on Jonah. I see that I need to repent for myself and for our nation.
• Emmanuel: I have learned a clear way to present the Gospel through your example, and I will follow this example in presenting the Gospel to others.
• Bulis: I am learning the new skill of careful Bible study by observing the text and this will be so useful in my ministry.
• Tyrannus Director Samir: We have all benefitted so much from this study. We have learned important truths about how to study and preach the Word. We have been changed.

All glory to God.

Pressing on, Eric